Natasha Llerena is a singer, songwriter and dancer from Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. She drinks from diverse references in Brazilian, African, Arabic and Iberian music, and is dedicated to the creation of a sound of her own, which she has been developing over the years. In partnership with her music producer Eduardo Andrade, together, they have invested in a sensitive and truthful musical project that results in the production of the first album, “Canto Sem Pressa”, by the young artist, released in April 2016. The album earned the top position of the ‘100 Best Brazilian Albums of the Year’ list (2016 edition) by the website Embrulhador.

To sing about the passage of time, maturity and the transformations of life, imprinting her own musical identity was the desire that moved the singer and composer to develop a solo career. The first album, "Canto Sem Pressa", is born four years after the decision to start her own musical project in 2012, and carries in the title a message about the relationship Natasha has with the creative process: a course of dedication for her artistic flourishment.

One of the new voices of the Rio de Janeiro music scene, Natasha, like other colleagues from her generation, uses the power of social networks to expand the scope of her work. To gain funding for her album, she collected almost R$30,000 in two months with a crowdfunding campaign on the website Catarse.

With her solo career, she performed in the main live music venues of Rio de Janeiro, such as Espaço Sérgio Porto, Bar Semente and Circo Voador. In 2012, she participated in the London edition of the Back2Black festival and returned to the stages of this event in 2015 in Rio de Janeiro, at the “Connection Brasil-Angola Concert”, when she sang alongside Aline Frazão and Toty Sa'Med.

In "Canto Sem Pressa", Natasha refines her musicality and dives deep in the richness of Brazilian music, bringing to the soundscape of the songs rhythms from samba, baião and maracatu. Her partnership with the music producer Eduardo Andrade, who is also the arranger and guitarist, brought even more diversity to the repertoire, with exotic instruments and arrangements created out of a detailed musical research.

In Natasha Llerena’s work, Brazilian rhythms are mixed with references from various parts of the world. One can hear influences from the music of Cape Verde, Africa (land of great new artists such as Mayra Andrade and Tcheka), as well as textures found in Arabic and American music. The track "Giros”, for example, brings the union of strong percussion instruments like the frame drum and alfaia, together with guitar riffs inspired by the fingerstyle of Andy McKee, as well as a bridge with a vocal line inspired in hip hop music. The result of this mixture is an album that speaks the language of the world and brings in its DNA the strength of the traditional Brazilian music mixed with contemporary international music.

"Canto Sem Pressa" also stands out for the compositional nature of the songs. The arrangements are performed by a fantastic team of talented musicians: cellist Jacques Morelembaum, harpist Cristina Braga, pianist André Mehmari and saxophonist/flutist Edu Neves are among some of the names on the list. The record counts also with the presence of the core band formed by Michel Nascimento, Pedro Amparo and Alexandre Berreldi, musicians from the new generation that have been accompanying Natasha in recent years.

Natasha Llerena is an artist on par with excellence and brings in her work philosophical messages about one’s inner and outer journey through the stages of life. The repertoire of the artist is the result of this passionate research, through which she speaks of issues that fascinate her. Gently, with sweet and strong presence, she directs us to know the depths of a proper poetics, a delicate look on the human being.

Natasha Llerena - Canto Sem Pressa

download Canto Sem Pressa

The download is completely free, so everyone has the opportunity to get to know this record. But as an independent project and with still a lot to produce, we open here a space for those who wish to make a contribution for downloading this record. With R $ 10, R $ 1 per song, we already have a great support for the project and its development.